Firm eyed for York Village redesign plan

Wednesday

Jul 9, 2014 at 2:00 AM

YORK — The York Village Study Committee met July 3 with members of the Downtown Revitalization Collaborative of Portland to negotiate a fee for the firm to design and develop a master plan for improvements to the center of town, according to Ron McAllister, who leads the study committee.

Susan Morse

YORK — The York Village Study Committee met July 3 with members of the Downtown Revitalization Collaborative of Portland to negotiate a fee for the firm to design and develop a master plan for improvements to the center of town, according to Ron McAllister, who leads the study committee.

The Downtown Revitalization Collaborative is being employed using funds from a $500,000 Municipal Partnership Improvement Grant, according to McAllister.

The collaborative is still determining the cost of the work, he said.

"They're going to give us a draft proposal before our next meeting," McAllister said on Tuesday.

The York Village Study Committee next meets at 8:30 a.m., Thursday, July 17, in the Town Hall conference room in a meeting open to the public.

The fee must be approved by the Board of Selectmen, McAllister said. The committee expects to have the funding proposal ready for the board's meeting of Monday, July 28.

Several public meetings on proposed York Village changes will be scheduled, with the first expected sometime this fall, according to McAllister.

A document outlining specific proposals is expected to take at least a year to complete, he said. Once the document is done and approved by the Board of Selectmen, proposed improvements to York Village could go to voters in increments, McAllister said.

There are three concept plans for improvements to the York Street and Long Sands Road intersection. These plans may be modified as the collaborative studies the options, according to McAllister.

The three options, as listed at www.yorkvillage.org, are:

A Monument Garden that features wider sidewalks called broadwalks, and enlarged gardens around the Civil War monument to include walkways connecting to downtown crosswalks. Angled parking would be replaced with parallel parking spaces. Traffic patterns would remain the same, but the broadwalks would result in narrower traffic lanes, which would "calm" traffic by reducing vehicle speed.

The Village Park option would include all of the changes in the Monument Garden plan, with the center island of the Civil War monument expanded significantly to provide more green space. Some parking spaces in front of the old Methodist Church building and in front of the Bank of America building would be removed to improve motorist visibility and traffic lane management.

The lane between the monument and the Masiello building would become one-way. A left-turn lane would be added on Long Sands Road at the intersection with York Street.

The Town Common option represents the most significant change. In this scenario, the lane between the monument and the Masiello building would be eliminated and replaced with a grassy common. The common would extend from the edge of the Cumberland Farms parking lot around to the entrance of the York Public Library and would include walking paths, an area where people could sit and perhaps a setting for outdoor performances.

The committee states on its Web site that the Town Common option meets all objectives to improve traffic flow and pedestrian safety while creating a much more attractive village atmosphere for resting, sightseeing, shopping or any other pedestrian activity.

In all three plans, communication and power utilities would be rerouted either underground or to utility poles placed behind existing structures.

On June 23, the Board of Selectmen unanimously agreed to authorize the York Village Study Committee to negotiate the fee with the Downtown Revitalization Collaborative, a company chosen from among six that applied.

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